Make sure the Rotary cure not worse than the ailment Tsk! Tsk!

Thursday

Oct 9, 2008 at 2:00 AMOct 9, 2008 at 7:28 PM

They screamed at one another, one of them gesticulating wildly with one hand while the other hand, white-knuckled, gripped the steering wheel to guide the competing cars through the packed Airport Rotary - Hyannis’ notorious traffic hell-hole.

Paul Gauvin

They screamed at one another, one of them gesticulating wildly with one hand while the other hand, white-knuckled, gripped the steering wheel to guide the competing cars through the packed Airport Rotary - Hyannis’ notorious traffic hell-hole. Fleeting road rage is what it was and it is comprised of a stream of screaming insults and a few choice ##@*%# accompanied by certain digital signals whereas a serious case of fury on wheels may end up in bloody noses, black eyes or worse. That’s why it is difficult to understand the reasoning behind the town’s insistence on shoving, jamming and cramming more and more housing and businesses all in one place, central Hyannis, whose access corridors can’t handle the traffic they already have. Twenty years ago, Bearses Way, for example, was a sort of locals’ secret way of getting from Route 132 to downtown, but has now erupted as a hefty second choice for just about everybody who knows anything. It was only about 3:30 p.m. when the above scene occurred at the Rotary, which was inexplicably lodged with a chain of cars rounding from routes 132 and 28, both backed about 200 yards, heading east toward Yarmouth, a stretch that barely kept a turtle’s pace and therefore its tail end stacked up into the Rotary – giving the illusion of steel stallions at parade rest. Fortunately, the trove of drivers caught up in this senseless spiral appeared languid, willing to wait for as long as it takes to move up another car length. Then there was the inevitable yakker on the cell phone conducting the important business of a supermarket list, oblivious to the crush of vehicles until the car astern honks irritably; and the clump of opportunists from Indy 500 revving up to pounce out of Barnstable Road like sleek leopards aching to devour the slightest empty space the moment there is one between two cars already jamming the Circus Ring. Granted, Route 132 is being widened to allow more traffic to reach the Hyannis and Yarmouth access feeder roads by further clogging the Airport Rotary while the state and local folk have studied the traffic mess, rendered a report and have now left the town(s) waiting for somebody (and the economy) to take up the cause with cash. Ironically, one of the traffic study’s recommendations is to replace the rotary with traffic lights at a time when, according to a piece in a recent Time magazine, more cities are opting for more rotaries that, the article notes, save lives and gasoline. An aerial photo accompanying the piece shows a rotary with 13 cars “free-flowing” through it with the ease of red corpuscles curving through a healthy aorta, leaving a regular Airport Rotary user here to wonder what those rotaries look like when hundreds of backed-up cars are heading for them simultaneously, as is frequently the case here. The other recommendation is for modifications of the Willow Street and Route 28 intersection leading into and out of Yarmouth. The goal it seems would be to move traffic faster out of there so that it doesn’t back up into the rotary some half-mile or so away. If we were to compare the popularity of rotaries in places such as Carmel, Indiana, which has built 50 roundabouts – or rotaries – since 2001, we might ask what makes the airport Rotary so different as to be particularly frustrating and so unpopular. The answer appears to be hydra-headed: The volume of cars and the bottleneck at Willow Street and Route 28 are the culprits. Why so many cars? A lack of practical alternative routes. If you live in South or West Yarmouth and work in Centerville, your most viable commute will take you by the rotary, just as residents of Yarmouth and South Centerville, Osterville, Cotuit and some of Marstons Mills head for the rotary to go shop at the mall, downtown or do business along downtown access roads. Then the flood of travelers using the airport, the ferries, going to the hospital, visiting Main Street and museums and the problem is not the rotary but the amount of traffic. As to devising a cure for this persistent ailment, Hyannis years ago put the cart before the horse. More business attracted more workers and more traffic before considering how local roads could handle it. Hopefully, the past has been a good teacher and the future can escape gridlock.

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